Vietnamese Salad
For a healthy summer meal, this Vietnamese Salad is bright with Asian flavors and loaded with crisp, fresh vegetables.
An Asian Salad Recipe is not a dull diet recipe, but instead, an entree focused on light, nutritious ingredients that happen to be delicious!
Why You Must Make
- The Asian-inspired dressing is terrific!!!
- This salad is chock full of delicious vegetables!
- You can eat it as a side salad or add chicken and make it your dinner.
I adore noodle or cabbage salads with soy sauce, sesame oil, and even peanut butter. I was contemplating which type to create when this Saveur recipe for Vietnamese Chicken Salad appeared in my inbox. Loads of shredded veggies and chicken were dressed with lime juice, fish oil, rice wine vinegar, and canola oil. It was intriguing and I knew I had to test it out.
Ingredient Notes
- Kitchen Staples – Garlic, Sugar, Vegetable Oil, Black Pepper
- Jalapenos – minced, wear gloves, especially if you wear contact lenses.
- Red Bell Pepper – julienned
- Rice Wine Vinegar
- Fish Sauce – A fermented Asian seasoning made from fish. I use Red Boat brand.
- Lime Juice – freshly squeezed
- Onion – look for a small sweet onion, then cut into thin slices.
- Chicken – shredded. May omit or use sliced beef, salmon or shrimp.
- Napa Cabbage – shredded
- Carrots – julienned
Expert Tips
When I gathered with my sisters a few years ago, we made a Vietnamese Noodle Bowl (see recipe link below) with quite similar ingredients. This Vietnamese Chicken Salad is heavier on the veggies and sans noodles. Perfect for my lunches during the week. And I could easily make it my dinner, too, but the picky fellow I live with likes his meat and potatoes, rib-sticking type dinners.
- Using shredded rotisserie chicken or leftovers makes for speedier prep.
- Shake up this Asian Chicken Salad by adding any of your favorite vegetables. You may want to up the bell peppers, or add sugar snap, snow peas, or cucumbers.
- The sky’s the limit. Use leftover slices of rare beef or chunks of roasted salmon instead of chicken. Or omit the chicken altogether. There’s no excuse not to add this healthy entree salad to your menu!
How to Make
- Whisk together salad dressing ingredients.
- Mix in jalapenos and set aside.
- Shred, julienne, and slice all salad ingredients.
- Mix together salad ingredients, toss with the dressing and serve!
Frequently Asked Questions
An Asian salad typically contains these ingredients:
Vegetables like cucumbers, bell peppers, cabbage, edamame, and onions.
Nuts or Seeds like peanuts, almonds, cashews or sesame seeds.
Protein like chicken, beef or shrimp.
Salad Dressing with soy sauce, rice vinegar, lime juice, oil.
The salad ingredients can be prepped ahead of time and the salad dressing can be mixed. But to prevent the cabbage from getting soggy, don’t toss the salad with the dressing until just before serving.
You may Also Like:
- Asian Chicken Cranberry Salad from Reluctant Entertainer
- Vietnamese Noodle Bowl
- Asian Ramen Noodle Salad
- Marinated Vegetable Salad
- Plus, all my Best Salad Recipes
Vietnamese Chicken Salad
A veggie packed chicken salad with an Asian flair!
Ingredients
- 2 jalapenos, minced or sliced very thin
- 3 cloves garlic, minced
- 2 tablespoons sugar
- 1 tablespoons rice wine vinegar
- 3 tablespoons fresh lime juice
- 3 tablespoons fish sauce
- 3 tablespoons vegetable oil
- 1 small onion, thinly sliced (I used a sweet Vidalia onion)
- 2 cups shredded cooked chicken, optional
- 4 cups shredded napa cabbage
- 2 carrots, julienned
- 1 red bell pepper, julienned
- Freshly ground black pepper
- Cilantro, for garnish
- Chopped mint, for garnish
Instructions
- Mince or slice jalapenos.
- Add garlic, sugar, rice wine vinegar, lime juice, fish sauce, oil, and onion.
- Mix till sugar dissolves.
- Add shredded chicken, shredded white cabbage, red bell pepper, and carrots.
- Season with freshly ground black pepper, mix and garnish with cilantro and mint if desired.
Notes
Adapted from Saveur.
Wear disposable gloves to chop jalapenos.
Omit chicken to make as a side salad.
Nutrition Information:
Yield:
4Serving Size:
1Amount Per Serving: Calories: 316Total Fat: 19gSaturated Fat: 3gTrans Fat: 0gUnsaturated Fat: 15gCholesterol: 63mgSodium: 1136mgCarbohydrates: 18gFiber: 2gSugar: 10gProtein: 19g
39 Comments on “Vietnamese Salad”
I love the Asian flavors of this salad! Such a delicious meal for me! Thanks for the recipe!
What a beautiful presentation – it looks simply delicious – wonderful flavors:))
Mary x
That looks wonderful, Liz! These types of salads are still on my list to try so I’m saving this one.
Lots of good veggies and flavors, definitely healthier than a noodle-based salad!
What a healthy salad and I love the Asian flavors and all of the different textures! This is a keeper!
Dear Lizzy, This sounds like my kind of salad. I know I would absolutely love it.
Blessings dear. Catherine xo
Such an array of wonderful Asian salads, love your Vietnamese chicken salad Lizzy, so light and refreshing and the salad dressing is absolutely perfect to have it on the side and let each person use as much, or little as they want! Printing this one out…thanks! xo
It looks so neat, and such a pretty salad. Love vietnamese flavors.
You just have such a way with food – in making it look so pretty and tasty!
Oh I like this! My salads have been a bit boring lately and this is the perfect pick me up they need.
I will have to try this out! My boyfriend loves the asian chicken salad from Chin Chin’s in La and this will be right up his alley! 🙂
www.prettybitchescancooktoo.com
I will try this immediately.
So light, crunchy and delicious!
That salad looks simple but delicious – thanks for the recipe!
What a great salad!! I love the flavours in this one 🙂
This salad looks wonderful!! I wish I could make salads like that!
Your salad looks and sounds sooo good, Liz. It is very reminiscent of a salad served at LYFE which uses Chef Art Smith inspired recipes. (He was Oprah’s chef.) Your family does very well indeed at mealtime =)
Yum, Liz! I too am a Asian salad fan, I could eat this type of salad every day. Yours looks wonderful!